Happy New Year

Well, time really flies right by when you're insanely busy doesn't it?  November and December were here and gone without a single blog post.... how did that happen you ask?  Well with 12 credits, new assignments and responsibilities at work and the never ending craziness that comes with being a parent to two very busy children and all of the sudden it's a new year!

November was a short month school wise due to teacher in service days and then the Thanksgiving break.  Turkey day was a good one for the family, we ate too much and enjoyed the numerous football games that were on, and got to spend time with the family.

December was also short, Christmas break and New Years will do that to you.  Throw in the fact that we had to prepare for the Holiday concert here at school and things were crazy.  I have to say though the concert was wonderfully done.  We have a new music teacher here at the school and he is doing wonderful things with the 3rd-12th grades.  They did an amazing job.  And the K-2 music teacher got together with me and we were able to do some Hawaiian inspired holiday things to spice things up.  She was in charge of the music and songs and I worked on the folk dance portion.  With the help of my dance teacher of 14 years who choreographed a Hawaiian dance for the kids we were able to come up with something quite special for the kids to preform.  I also taught my kindergarten students how to do the chicken dance and they mastered shaking their tail feathers beautifully for the concert.

Enter Christmas break that was not at all what we had planned, but we made it through somehow.  It started with my son breaking out in a horrible rash all over his thigh the first night we were on break.  After taking him to the doctor we found out that he had shingles.... seriously!  We've always said that he has an old man's soul, now I guess that he has an old man's disease as well.  I have found that shingles can happen to kids, though it's rare only about 2% of all shingles cases are in children, at least that's what my research is telling me, I'm no doctor though so what do I know?  So we spent several days with him lying on the couch and not wanting to move at all.  Getting him to eat and drink when we could and keeping a cold compress on his thigh as it seemed to be the only thing that was actually bringing any relief.  On Christmas eve he did feel good enough to move around so we headed to my parents for presents and food and fun.  Then around 2 am I woke up with a horrible stomach flu.  Good bye to Christmas morning traditions, hello to mom laying in the bathroom all day.  NOT fun!  Then just when I think that we're starting to do better and may be able to actually squeeze something fun into the few days that ended the year my daughter got a fever and now has a sinus infection.

On the up side.... 12 more credits are now under my belt and I did manage to get straight A's yet again.  :)  I don't know how I was able to do it, given all the stress I was under this last semester, but I did it!  Yahoo!!

Now it's 2013 and it's going to be a great year... I hope! :)  I'll be taking only 9 credits this semester so hopefully that will give me more time to focus on my resolutions.  They include drinking more water and eating more fruit.... and tackling one major house project a month.  I think they're doable goals.... here's to happy thinking! :)

Hope everyone had a great holiday.... what are your resolutions?!

Happy Winter... What? Isn't it supposed to be Fall?

So much to do, so little time.  Did you know that it's almost Halloween?  Seriously!  How did that happen?  It seems like school just started yesterday.  Craziness!  I feel like I still have so much to do!

And speaking of crazy, the weather here is insane.  We went from summer to very cool fall in a days time.  Fall was here for a week and now it's winter for sure.  It's been snowing on and off every day.  We've got highs in the low 40's... yes LOW 40's!  Recess duty went from a nice ray of sunshine to a winter coat and a wool hat in the matter of 2 weeks.  It makes me sad, I love fall, the beautiful changing colors, the cooler nights and warm days.  And it's already gone.  We put two new trees in our backyard this spring, they're beautiful Autumn Blaze maples, the leaves turn a vibrant deep red in the fall, they're beautiful.  Problem is with this crazy weather, they only half turned red and they're still on the tree for the most part.  The tree is even upset about this weather!

The first day it snowed there was literally a skiff, but the kids were so excited about it that it didn't matter at all.  They were determined and the built a snowman.  Okay so he was a hairy snowman because he was covered in grass but the did it!

Okay so in the spirit of trying to remain positive.... one good thing about this weather?  Well hunting for deer should be much easier.  The cold weather gets the deer moving around here.  Now I just need to find time to go to the woods and hunt... anyone have some time to spare?

Straight from the Student's Mouth

Whenever I share these with my husband he always thinks that I'm making this stuff up... if you're a teacher or you work at all with little kids you know that it's impossible to make this stuff up.... Here are just a few from this week:

A first grader who was upset about a kindergartener being in the first grade room and moving chairs around, "He needs to respect his superiors!"

A kindergartener who got in trouble for calling a classmate a slowpoke, "I'm just kiddin' you're really a fastpoke!"

And a first grader who was having a hard time getting PE shoes, "Well that's just great, I'm last again, this is seriously the worst thing that could ever happen!!"

Yep, it's that hard being a first grader :)

PE Teachers are CRAZY!

Seriously, who else is brave enough to stand in a gym full of 23 yes TWENTY THREE 1st and 2nd grade students, and give them balls to throw at each other hoping that they'll catch them and you won't end up getting hit?  :)

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.....

If you've ever had a day where you think that nothing can possibly go right you're going to LOVE this... my Wednesday was such a bad day that when I woke up today I really did NOT want to get out of my bed.  Here's how it all went downhill!

The day started out pretty well, my husband was up before me and had the coffee ready when I got out of the shower... what a good man!  The kids and I were on schedule and headed out the door to find a FLAT tire.  Now I'm a home grown Idaho farm girl, a flat tire doesn't scare me at all.  It wasn't quite as flat as this picture I've inserted, had it been I do know how to change a tire... thankfully I only had to drive down to our shop to air it up.

Here comes problem #2.  In our shop, it doesn't seem to matter who uses the air compressor, it never gets shut off, so there is always air built up.  This means that if there is anything connected to the coupler (that's the slider thing at the end of the hose that allows you to connect different attachments) you better be holding on to it very tightly because the second you release the coupler it's going to go flying.  Once again, being a home grown farm girl this is all stuff I know.  For whatever reason... slick hands, no grip at my ripe old age of 30, or karma..... my grip was not good enough.  The coupler had a larger coupler attachment hooked in and it came flying out right to my foot at 250+PSI.  I'm pretty sure that my toe is broken!  Powering through and not wanting to be late to work I get the tire aired up and drive up the street to the school.

The day went on without any major problems.... until I'm walking down the hall on my way to pick up my 3rd and 4th grade PE class.  A student came out of the classroom not looking so well, I'm about to ask if he's okay when the poor kid pukes in the hallway, close to but thankfully not on me.  All I can think is that he must feel just awful.  As he runs in the bathroom I go to tell the teacher what has happened, unfortunately she already knows because it happened in the classroom as well.  So I take the kids to PE and the day continues to go on.

The end of the day comes and my kids are headed to their after school Catholic class, which means I'm headed home to actually catch up on homework!  What an idea huh, being caught up?!?  Yah... insert problem #4.... while loading the kids backpacks and my bag into the car I managed to hit the lock button and lock my keys in my car!  My car and house keys, my cell phone, my work keys, my laptop and iPad all locked in the car.  So I go back into the building to call that wonderful husband that made me coffee this morning to ask for his spare car key.  He has it on him and big bonus, he's seeding in a field that is only a few miles from town!  So I borrow my mom's car and head out to pick up the key.  I return to the school parking lot thinking things are going to be okay, I'll unlock my door and head home and still have some time to get a few things done before picking the kids up.  Nope, problem #5.... Scott's key will NOT unlock the doors, it won't even turn in the drivers side door.  SERIOUSLY!  I'm not making this up.  Wow!

At this point I'm ready to just sit down and cry.  So I walk back into the building and ask my mom to give me a ride.  She offers to call AAA and have them send someone to unlock the door for me.  On any normal given day this would be perfectly fine.  On this specific Wednesday however, I not only need to get the kids from their after school class, but I need to get my son to his pee-wee football game.  Knowing this my mom also offers to let me take her car.  So things are going to be okay... we'll get there one way or another.  On the way to the football game my toe is throbbing so bad that I think I'm going to cry.  I want to look at it, but with all that has gone wrong already in the day I'm afraid to take off my shoe.  The kids win their football game 50-0 and it's cold enough that my toe is now numb, time to go home.

I get back to my mom's house to find that the locksmith was finally able to unlock my car, YEAH!  So the kids and I head home.  It's already an hour past their bed time and they're exhausted so they quickly wash, brush teeth, change and hop in bed.  Things are finally starting to look up.  So with the kids tucked in and my husband on his way home I decide that I'm deserving of a glass of wine.  I've been saving this wonderful bottle of a carbonated burgundy wine that my mother-in-law orders from New York and gifted to me when I turned 30 this summer.  I get the bottle out, open it and turn around to get a wine glass out of the cupboard.  I turn back around to see that the wine is completely fizzing out of the top of the bottle and all over the counter.... SERIOUSLY!!

At this point I drop my head and walk away, I don't even attempt to clean up the mess.  My husband comes home, sees the mess and goes looking for me.  He finds me laying on the couch with a look of complete defeat!  Foot elevated with a bag of ice on my toes.  After hearing about my unbelievable day he goes into the kitchen, cleans up the fizzy wine mess and pours me a glass.  Okay so now the seriously is a good one, SERIOUSLY what would I do without this man?!?

I've lost count of how many things went wrong so let's add one more thing to the list.... at some point during the day I also managed to chip my front tooth.  I don't know when or how but I do know it's chipped!  So here's to a better day.... broken toe and all!  Enjoy the laughs it's okay, I'm laughing now too! :)

Amazing Opportunity

This week I had the chance to attend a training for Khan Academy and implementing it into the classroom.  As someone who is very passionate about math I was super excited about this before I even left for the training.  All I have to say is that the training was absolutely AMAZING!!  Not only did I meet tons of great math and elementary teachers to network with but I took away an energized feeling about Khan Academy and using it as a supplement in the classroom.  Not only does this site have tons of math, but there is now science, art history, history, and computer science tutorials as well.  At some point, my superintendent would like me to present all of this wonderful information to the teachers I work with.  It's very exciting!  My two favorite areas include the Vi Hart videos... she's hilarious .. and the LeBron asks section which I can't wait to introduce to my son, he loves LeBron James.

So yeah for things that make you feel energized about something that you already love to do... in my case, teaching math!

Organizational Sunday

We spent our Sunday getting ready for winter by splitting wood today.  Thankful for good friends who come to help.  we cut down three huge maple trees in our backyard this summer after one lost a huge limb that nearly landed on the house.  We found out that it was rotting from the inside out so we decided to take down all three and start over on the back yard.  This resulted in a huge mess of wood that needed to be split and stack.  So while the boys split I stacked.  We ended up with quite the stack, we'll still need more, but we're well on our way to being ready for winter.